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Lebanon turns down Russian navy request to divert flights – minister

Russian and Syrian warplanes carried out more than 70 strikes in eastern Deir Ezzor province Friday, killing at least 36 people including 10 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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The measures include establishing contacts with global Civil Aviation Organization and the authorities responsible for aviation to ensure continuous air traffic at the airport and compliance to the maximum level of public safety. Currently, they don’t have plans to cancel flights. They are working on opening an air corridor above Cyprus and if it doesn’t work we will stick to the current lines. “Until now there is no decision to suspend flights”.

According to an global governmental database of notices for airmen (NOTAM) Russian Federation gave notice on November 20 of a rocket test firing off the Lebanese coast over a three-day period.

Russia, which is carrying out air strikes in neighbouring Syria, “has asked the Lebanese authorities that planes leaving Beirut airport towards the west avoid overflying an area in Mediterranean territorial waters because of manoeuvres on Saturday, Sunday and Monday”, Transport Minister Ghazi Zeaiter said.

“This (disruption would have been) for three days but we refused because it is against our interests”, he said.

Moscow fired 18 missiles from ships in its Caspian Sea fleet at seven targets in the Raqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces, defence minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

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Putin praised the Russian operation in Syria but said it was “still not sufficient” to wipe out the jihadists in the country and that a “large volume of work” lay ahead.

Rafik Hariri International Airport Beirut